Hello, faithful readers! How’s everyone’s Christmas shopping going? I still have quite a bit left to do and not a whole lot of time to do it! If you’re like me, I’m always looking for new easy and inexpensive ideas. If holiday shopping and DIY gift-making is your plan this week, I’ve got a special treat for you today!

I’m sure many of you remember the DIY Beard Hat Pattern I shared earlier this year. I made this beard hat for Daniel as a Christmas gift last year. He loved it so much, I wanted to share it with all of you, since I know I had a hard time finding the perfect pattern. I had no idea so many of you would love it too!

Knitting a beard hat for someone is a great DIY Christmas gift on its own, but if you know someone that wants to learn to knit, there’s an even better way to present this gift. A knitting kit!

I had a very sweet and talented reader contact me with this great idea. She’s a graphic designer from Spain, and she created a wonderful printed tutorial based on my beard hat pattern. She originally created it for her sister-in-law to include in a knitting kit for her, but she generously wants to share it with all of you as well!

You can download the Beard Hat Pattern tutorial here, and then simply print out the guide on standard letter sized paper. You’ll notice there are small black lines on each corner. Those are just guide lines for cutting each side, as the graphic is smaller than the paper.

She also included this handy guide on how to fold the printed tutorial.

Here’s how I followed the guide:

With the blank side of the paper facing up, and the Knit Beard Pattern cover closest to me. Fold the cover side up. You will now have steps 7-16 facing up and upside down. This is Step 2 on the graphic.

Fold over the right side of the tutorial, you will now have steps 3-6 facing up (upside down). This is Step 3 on the graphic. This is just to create a crease, so then you will unfold the right side of the tutorial.

I then flipped the tutorial over, so steps 1-6 were facing up. Then following Step 4 on the graphic, I folded both the left side and right side of the tutorial to the crease I just made. You will now see the Knit Beard Pattern cover and steps 7-10 facing up.

I then folded the right side of the tutorial back (steps 7-10). You should now be left with a little accordion booklet, with the cover facing up at you. You can flip through to make sure all the steps are in order.

This is such a great idea to include with a knitting kit, and a really easy, fast and inexpensive DIY Christmas gift!

If you’re not sure what to include in a knitting kit, you could always buy a pre-made kit. This is actually the one I got as a kid, and how I taught myself to knit. I still use a lot of the tools that came with it!

I want to say a BIG thank you to Laia for her awesome idea for a printed tutorial and knitting kit. And especially for being so kind and sharing her wonderful tutorial. Be sure to head over to her website and check out more of her work!

I’m sure many of you saw my original post for this project, but I wanted to re-share it with you all, because it would make a great DIY Christmas gift for your girlfriend/boyfriend or wife/husband. It’s easy, quick, and inexpensive! But it has so much meaning behind it, I know anyone would love to receive it. I know Daniel did!

Obviously this project is all about the maps, so the first thing I did was figure out how I wanted them to look. I did this DIY right before moving to Portland, so I was working on limited time and a small budget. Because of that, I personally chose to use Google Maps and print them out at home. I also chose to use Google Maps because I wanted to control the zoom of each map and what would be seen within the heart. You could also use an Atlas, Thomas Guide, or look for old maps at a thrift store!

Because we were about to move from Los Angeles to a new home in Portland, I chose to include a map of the neighborhood we dearly loved but had to leave behind. You can use any heart stencil you’d like – as for me, I didn’t have one (remember that whole uncrafty crafter thing?). So I just searched for an image of a heart I liked and printed it out on cardstock, thus making my own stencil!

I stenciled and cut out each heart, and before I knew it, I had perfect little sentimental maps laid out before me. This is the moment when I got really excited because I knew the project was going to turn out just as I had imagined it! At the widest part of the heart it measured 2 1/2″, and from the top point to the bottom point it measured 2 3/4″. This size worked perfectly for me based on 12 hearts and a 12×12 frame. You’ll want to adjust the sizes depending on how many hearts you’re planning on using.

Next, I pasted each heart on a piece of matboard with Mod Podge and then cut out each heart again. The reason I did this is because I wanted the hearts to have a 3D effect. I used a pair of scissors to do this, and even though they were REALLY dull, it was still fairly easy to cut through the matboard. With sharp scissors it should be a breeze, but use whatever cutting tool works best for you!

I tried to get fancy and penciled in a mathematical grid onto the matboard to try and ensure all the hearts would line up perfectly. It…mostlyworked. The grid was totally wrong, but it still helped me eyeball them into the right placement!

I pasted each heart onto a 12×12 piece of matboard using Mod Podge (you will most likely have to cut your matboard down to size), and weighed it down with heavy books for about 48 hours to make sure the edges wouldn’t curl up. As for placement, I arranged the maps mainly by how they looked, not by chronological order. I didn’t want two mostly blue hearts next to each other, same with the green, I also wanted to make sure our neighborhood heart was kind of in the middle, and because a lot of the places we visited were in California and on the East Coast, I tried to vary those from each other as well.

After that, all that was left was putting the finished project in a frame! I really liked the idea of a white picture frame, since almost all the frames in our house are black. Apparently white frames aren’t very popular. I searched for a LONG time to find the perfect white 12×12 frame, and still didn’t have that many options. In the end, I decided to go with this frame, and I am more than pleased with it. It’s not the highest quality frame I’ve ever seen, but it doesn’t look cheap and feels very sturdy.

So, here it is, my completed DIY Places We’ve Been Heart Maps!

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of mine and the original inspiration on Etsy. What do you think? I really loved how it turned out. In total it only cost me about $20, easier on my wallet than $500!

Bonus: The Gift Wrap!

I love to make gift wrapping just as meaningful as the gift itself, and I thought I’d share what I did in case anyone is looking for some wrapping inspiration.

All I did was take brown packing paper (which came from an Amazon shipment), and with a black Sharpie wrote the lyrics from our song in cursive (in case you’re wondering, our song is “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” by Elvis Presley). Simple as that! This was originally a gift for our anniversary, which is why I chose to use lyrics from our song. That could also work for Christmas since it’s a romantic gift and a romantic holiday, but you could also write Christmas lyrics to make it more festive.

There you have it! I hope this tutorial gave you all inspiration to make your own DIY Christmas gift!

When I first saw the “Places We’ve Been” pin, I instantly knew I wanted to replicate it as an anniversary gift for my boyfriend Daniel. I originally thought it was a DIY tutorial, only to find out later it was actually from an Etsy shop. While I LOVE the way it looks, I certainly did not have over $500 to spend. I also wanted to make it myself because I always feel that adds more meaning to a gift. So here we are – below is my DIY of the “Places We’ve Been” pinspiration!

Obviously this project is all about the maps, so the first thing I did was figure out how I wanted them to look. I did this DIY right before moving to Portland, so I was working on limited time and a small budget. Because of that, I personally chose to use Google Maps and print them out at home. I also chose to use Google Maps because I wanted to control the zoom of each map and what would be seen. But you could also use an Atlas, Thomas Guide, or look for old maps at a thrift store!

Because we were about to move from Los Angeles to a new home in Portland, I chose to include a map of the neighborhood we dearly loved but had to leave behind. You can use any heart stencil you’d like – as for me, I didn’t have one (remember that whole uncrafty crafter thing?). So I just searched for an image of a heart I liked and printed it out on cardstock, and made my own stencil!

I stenciled and cut out each heart, and before I knew it, I had perfect little sentimental maps laid out before me. This is the moment when I got really excited because I knew the project was going to turn out just as I had imagined it! At the widest part of the heart it measured 2 1/2″, and from the top point to the bottom point it measured 2 3/4″. This size worked perfectly for me based on 12 hearts and a 12×12 frame.

Next, I pasted each heart on a piece of matboard with Mod Podge and then cut out each heart again. The reason I did this is because I wanted the hearts to have a 3D effect. I used a pair of scissors to do this, and even though they were REALLY dull, it was still fairly easy to cut through the matboard. With sharp scissors it should be a breeze, but use whatever cutting tool works best for you!

I tried to get fancy and penciled in a mathematical grid onto the matboard, to try and ensure all the hearts would line up perfectly. It…mostlyworked. The grid was totally wrong, but it still helped me eyeball them into the right placement!

I pasted each heart onto a 12×12 piece of matboard using Mod Podge (you will most likely have to cut your matboard down to size), and weighed it down with heavy books for about 48 hours to make sure the edges wouldn’t curl up. As for placement, I arranged the maps mainly by how they looked, not by chronological order. I didn’t want two mostly blue hearts next to each other, same with the green, I also wanted to make sure our neighborhood heart was kind of in the middle, and because a lot of the places we visited were in California and on the East Coast, I tried to vary those from each other as well.

After that, all that was left was putting the finished project in a frame! I really liked the idea of a white picture frame, since almost all the frames in our house are black, but apparently they aren’t very popular. I searched for a LONG time to find the perfect white 12×12 frame, and still didn’t have that many options. In the end, I decided to go with this frame, and I am more than pleased with it. It’s not the highest quality frame I’ve ever seen, but it doesn’t look cheap and feels very sturdy.

So, here it is, my completed DIY Places We’ve Been Heart Maps!

Here’s a side-by-side comparison. What do you think? This is the project I am most proud of to date. And in total it only cost about $20! Love it!

Bonus: The Gift Wrap!

I love to make gift wrapping just as meaningful as the gift itself, and I thought I’d share what I did in case anyone is looking for some wrapping inspiration. This had so much meaning behind it, but was super quick and inexpensive!

All I did was take brown packing paper (which came from an Amazon shipment), and with a black Sharpie wrote the lyrics from our song in cursive (in case you’re wondering, our song is “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” by Elvis Presley). Simple as that! I completed it with a red ribbon, because I felt it needed a little color – the color of love, to be exact.

Thanks to all for reading! I hope this tutorial gave you all Pinspiration to make your own Places We’ve Been DIY!

HI!

My name’s Michele, and lil bit is a blog about, well, a ‘lil bit’ of everything! I love food and to travel, I recently moved to Portland and am exploring the city, I am a self-proclaimed “uncrafty crafter” trying to become a better DIY-er, but most of all -- I am a 20-something girl trying to find the right path, my path, in this crazy but amazing world.